Never Feel Alone

I love to keep busy. It makes the days race by, and all of a sudden, look, it is Saturday, and I am left wondering to myself where the hell did the last week go?

The plus side of being a busy bee is that your mind is occupied and you get to spend lots of time doing fun things that recently you have not really been given the opportunity to enjoy. But then with every up side, there is a down side too, and while I have really enjoyed being as busy as I have this week, I have also missed kind of having my finger on the button so to speak.

Does anyone else suffer life withdrawl symptoms?  No? Ok, I’ll shut up now! 

lol. So you are all reading this thinking ‘God Rob’s gone mad!’ and to be honest you wouldn’t be far wrong. Life recently has been such a wild roller coaster of up hill and down hill, bored to distraction one moment and rushed into a manic frenzy the next. I do kind of feel like a tornado has swept through my life and left me very uncertain of where the heck I landed.

Learning that life has moments of chaos and that we are actually quite adept at sorting it out, adapting and getting on with it is often an amazing feat that i pause to marvel at. Humankind has got to be the most adaptable creature on the planet, and the age old saying of “We’ll make a plan” rings as true today as it ever has. Sometimes they are botch plans, temporary fixes, a patchwork to get us through the moment. Other times they are organisational wonders, detailed plans that involve hours of preparation  loads of operational skill, and produce amazing results.

Thing thing that I always find amusing about this random approach to our circumstances, is how often we are as unsuccessful as we are in getting the results we wanted in the first place. Failure is an ever present part of the plot, the uncertain and unpredictable result, much the same as a roll of the dice. Yet this doesn’t seem to phase us as people. We just plough on, pick up the pieces of our failure and find another way. I love that about the human endeavour.

Watch a small child. They set their mind on an eventual goal, and learn through experience how to go from where they stand, to the mind blowing feeling of achievement that success brings to us. It is this desire to win, this overwhelming burden to get it right, be the best, find a way, that makes us special people. So even in the chaos of random activity, the pressures of our daily lives, we still manage to find a way.

Ways to stay in touch. Ways to let those who matter, know that they are important. Ways to stay healthy, and fed and watered. Ways to keep our finger on the pulse. So yeah, I guess I am just saying that despite the fact that we dip in and out of the focus of our friends and acquaintances  it does not make us any less special, needed or important. We may from time to time feel a little isolated, lonely or forgotten, but reading between the lines, we realise that there are times we all just don’t have the time we wish we had. It is probably just at that moment that the people you miss need to hear that you are there, alive, well and thinking of them. A simple message, a word of encouragement, a smile on a highly pressured day. These are all things we need, cherish and desire, so make a little effort and remember that those around us have just as much on their plate as we do on our own. Together we are the ones that make the difference in our world. 

Thought for today – “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in our weary world.” – William Shakespeare

Song for today – Girls and Boys by Blur

LOL or ROFL That’s My Mom

We have always been rather blessed as a family, as comedy for our entertainment through the years has kind of always been provided by my mother. Mom is a wonderful woman, but takes fright really easily and is so gullible bless her. I have some pure classic memories through the years of funny instances and events that provided much mirth for me as a kid and us as a family.

It is always good to get around the table and recount these memories or tease mom over the various mishaps through the years. From bringing a rather posh restaurant to a standstill on Christmas day, to having a coffee shop evacuated in error, or learning to skateboard on a parcel trolley, unintentionally I might add, mom has always managed to make me crack up.

This week was a perfect example. To give everyone some background, my mom has Alzheimers, and I am a full time carer now for her, luckily having been given permission to work from home. Now while this is over all a hugely difficult thing to face, it does produce some moments that can only be describes as hilarious.

On Monday afternoon, while I was busy working in my room, mom occupied herself in her room with some chore or other, and everything seemed fine. At some stage I became aware that mom had been in the bathroom for a fair amount of time. It is like a sub concious thing I have kind of developed to listen for tell tail signs of distress or emergency, even when I am busy.

So, I noticed that she’d been in the bathroom a fair while, and so decided to just give a close listen and make sure she was ok. I could smell her shampoo (it has a really strong scent) and realised she was washing her hair, so panic over. However, a half hour later, she was still washing her hair. I wondered what was up, but again, I have learnt to be patient and allow her to do what she needs to do as long as she is in no danger.

When I eventually heard the door open, I called out to check she was ok, and heard her gawf as she wondered through to her bedroom. I waited for her to change, and could hear her giggling in her room, and by now my curiosity was raised to high levels.

Eventually she came through to my office, and while still drying her hair, informed me she’d had a disaster. I turned to look at her, and asked what had happened. She explained that she’d found some stuff in her cupboard for her hair, and had decided to try it out on a little bit of her hair to see if it still suited her. Well, apparently she’d got more than she anticipated on the one side of her hair, and it was a disastrous colour, (I assume from its age or something). Too shy to tell me, she’d rushed to wash it out, but it took 16 washes to get the stuff out.

Well by now I was giggling myself, just from the state my mother was in while trying to explain this all too me. I got up and followed her through to her room to dry her hair for her, and as we got there I asked what she had done with the ‘stuff’ she’d put in her hair.

“Oh I threw the bloody stuff out,” she told me. “I don’t want to be doing that again.” (please bear in mind my mom’s memory, she’d probably forget she’d tried this in a few weeks, and if it was still lying around might try it again. I am blessed in that my mom is still aware of her mental problems and manages them quite well when she can).

“Oh”, I said. “What was it doing still lying around?” My mom stopped dying her hair a number of years ago now.

“I don’t know, I just wondered what it would look like, so wanted to try a little, but that didn’t work,” she giggled.

“What colour was it?” I enquired.

“Hang on, I’ll go get it,” she replied wondering off as I readied the hair dryer.

When she returned, the fun started…..

What she handed to me was a small bottle of Revlon Facial Foundation in a light sandy colour. Well, I was rolling on the floor. I couldn’t talk, tears were streaming down my face and my sides hurt like hell.

When I could eventually talk, I explained the reason for my hysteria to my mom. “This is facial make up,” I explained.

My mom’s eyes became the size of saucers, and she proclaimed, “Oh good God, what would I want to put that s**t on my face for?”

Well, this moment will live long in my memory. My mom is a fine old lady that has done so much for me in my life, and while it is hard to deal with what is going on around me, it is our ability to laugh that makes it bearable some days. I hate to think about the reality of it all, but they say it is the good things in life you remember the longest. In this instance I know that this is true.

We will all face hardship and difficult times at some point in our lives, but even in the darkness, there are days that are good days.

Thought for today – “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” – Angela Schwindt

Song for today – Mama I Love You by the Spice Girls

How Hard is Temptation?

This video is really cute and made me smile. It is a great example of how when we are presented with something and told we may get something better if we wait, how hard it is to not take what we already have and enjoy it then.  Also demonstrates our weakness of putting something right in front of our noses and told no. It’s a lot easier to not worry about eating a marshmallow if there is no marshmallow sitting right in front of your super sensitive nose!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Sometimes in these days of ASBO’s and youths in hoodies, we forget the humble innocence of childhood, and the precious comments that come out of children’s mouths. So I figured I’d put a few of my favourite quotes down for ya all to have a giggle at. What better way to start the day??? Enjoy.

It was Christmas time, and my son, 6, was learning the story of the Nativity. Who came to visit the baby Jesus in the manger? the teacher asked his Sunday School class. “The three wise guys,” my son blurted out. (I always wondered, Was he thinking of the Three Stooges?) — Diane Dew, Milw., Wis.

When my daughter, Brittany, was 4 or 5, she was having some “growing pains” in her legs and needed to take some Tylenol™. She had the bottle and was trying in vain to get it open while I changed her baby sister’s diaper. I saw her frustration and explained that it was a childproof cap and I would have to open it when I finished. Eyes wide with wonder, Brittany asked, “How does it know it’s me?”
— Barbie Buntz

My 2-year-old watched out the window as I was driving. Suddenly he got very upset, saying “Oh, they are really gonna get now! Oh, are they ever gonna get it now!” Seeing nothing remarkable happening outside, I asked my son, “Who’s gonna get it? What did they do?” Then, with all the seriousness of a 2-year-old, and pointing to the stream of vapor behind a plane in the sky, he explained, “The guy driving that plane up there! Look at that! He scratched the sky, everywhere he goes — and is God gonna ever be mad!”
— Diane Dew, Milw., Wis.

When Sara was 6, her new puppy became seriously ill, and the vet didn’t know if he could save it. I felt very bad for Sara, because this was her first pet and it had been a Christmas gift, so I said to her, “Don’t worry, precious; just remember, if Fluffy dies, we’ll see her in heaven.” Sara looked at me as if I were simple-minded and said, “Well, yes, Daddy, but heaven’s a long way off for me — I’m only six!” — Michael Huggins

My brother was placed in the remedial reading class in second grade. When my mom asked him how school was going one day, David replied, “I’m the smartest of the dumbest.” — Diane Dew, Milwaukee, Wis.

In the earlier days of television, before technology got sophisticated, network interruptions were more common. One day, when the black-and-white circular ‘bulls-eye’ symbol appeared on the screen with the words “Please Stand By,” my little sister went and stood by the TV set. After awhile, a family member asked what she was doing. A new reader, she proudly replied, “Following instructions. It said to please stand by it.” — Diane Dew, Milwaukee, Wis.

My husband has always had a beard. One day, he decided to shave it off. He came into the room where my 5-year-old daughter Samantha was and asked her, “Notice anything different?” To which she replied, “No” with a puzzled look on her face. My husband then said to her, “My beard’s gone.” Now the puzzled look disappeared and the innocent eyes appeared when she said “I didn’t take it!”
— Karen and Rich S., N.J.

When my daughter is trying to remember something, she says, “My head is trying to show it to me.”
— Jim Gore

One night I was babysitting my two grandchildren. We were out running errands and we decided to grab a bite to eat at home. Of course they wanted McDonalds which I don’t care for, so I also stopped at a fish place to pick me up a dinner. When we sat down to eat, the kids asked “what are those round things Nanna?” I said they are called “Hush Puppies”. So I gave them the hush puppies to eat from my meal. Later, when their mom arrived home, Cody ran to meet mom. She asked him what they had been doing. His response was ” We ate McDonalds and “Shut Up Dogs!” LYONSJANICE@ aol.com

One day my five year old informed me that she didn’t have to go to school to learn, because she could remember everything by talking a picture. She said she had a camera in her head she takes pictures with it to help her remember things. So I asked, “Then how is it you always seem to forget about picking up your toys?” She replied, “Sometimes I forget to put film in it.” — Vicky Barrons